Saints still alive: Improbable run continues for No. 12 seed

Monday

Oct 29, 2012 at 3:15 AMOct 29, 2012 at 10:48 AM

By John Doyle jdoyle@fosters.com

DOVER — The St. Thomas Aquinas High School boys soccer team is most successful when it scores first. So Bryan King's goal on a free kick in the third minute came at the best possible time for the Saints in their Division II quarterfinal on Sunday.

Now the Saints are going to the semifinals despite having a losing record in the regular season. King's early goal sparked the No. 12 St. Thomas to a 3-1 win over No. 13 Plymouth on Sunday afternoon.

“First goal is the most important,” King said. “A lot of times this season we got down one goal, and that didn't really work out for us. It got us going and worked out well.”

King was going right for the goal on the free kick, but was still a little surprised to see it get past Plymouth goalie Jake Buford.

“I was trying to curve it around the wall,” King said about his goal. “It worked out with the wet ball. The goalie couldn't really get it. I was watching it, and it went off his hands and kind of dribbled in. Then I reacted. It was kind of a delay.”

St. Thomas (8-7-3) will face No. 1 Hollis/Brookine (13-1-3) on Thursday night (6) in Nashua. Hollis was a 3-2 winner over No. 9 Portsmouth (8-8-2) on Sunday. Plymouth, whom the Saints defeated 2-0 in the last game of the regular season, ended its season at 8-9-1.

Plymouth was a 3-0 upset winner over No. 4 Lebanon (10-5-2) in their preliminary, giving the Saints the unexpected opportunity to host Sunday's quarterfinal. The Saints' good fortune continued in the 30th minute, when Jon Nartiff was brought down in the box by Plymouth's Brandon Toomey. Nartiff converted the penalty kick for a 2-0 St. Thomas lead.

“In the playoffs, you have to play pretty tight defense and wait for the other team to make mistakes,” St. Thomas coach Scott Suleski said. “Those first two goals were mistakes (by Plymouth).”

Nartiff was driving to the goal along the baseline when he was tripped from behind, and did a good job of selling the foul to the referee.

“He got my ankles and I figured I'd go for a slide,” Martiff said. “It was close. (I) was a little frustrated. I was happy (the referee) gave it to me. I thought I deserved it.”

The Saints controlled play for most of the afternoon, taking a good deal of pressure off goaltender Ben Mardin, who had high praise for his team's defense and its anchor, senior Noah Schwaegerle.

“I have to give 100 percent props to our defense,” Mardin said. “Noah is the soul of the team. I know we score a lot of goals, but our defense is definitely what puts us over the top.”

St. Thomas carried the 2-0 lead into the second half, then went up 3-0 in the 54th minute when King sent a rolling shot into the bottom right corner of the net. Plymouth's Silas Murray cut the Saints' lead to 3-1 with a goal in the 60th minute.

With the Saints' regular field worn down to a large mud patch thanks to an entire season of soccer and football, plus recent rains, Sunday's match was played on a makeshift soccer field located about 100 yards north. Suleski was happy with the switch.

“Having this new field helped,” Suleski said. “This is the first time we played on grass. The funny thing is the last time we did this, we beat Plymouth 3-0 (in the 2008 tournament).”

St. Thomas handed Hollis/Brookline its only loss of the season, 4-1 on Sept. 27 in Hollis.